RusuaLic or Mavrerius Hon. RAVI YERRIGADOO Attorney-General This 6 August 2015 Office of the Secretary-General Hartogstraat 13 2514 EP The Hague The Netherlands Dear Mr. Gerhard Jarosch, Thave taken cognizance of your letter dated 4" August 2015. I regret to inform you that your letter has, in breach of etiquette, been sent to me by no other than the Public Relations Officer of the Office of the DPP (a copy of the self-explanatory email sent to me by the Public Relations Officer of the Office of the DPP is enclosed for your consideration). I wish to highlight to you that Article 1 of the Mauritian Constitution reads as follows: “1. The State Mauritius shall be a sovereign democratic State which shall be known as the Republic of Mauritius.” ‘The above article has been the subject matter of judicial consideration in the case of State v A.R Khoyratty 2004 PRV 59 and paragraph 29 of the judgment, reproduced below, is worth quoting: “29.Giving content to the term “democratic state” in section 1 is part of the task of judges who are called upon to interpret the Constitution, Garrioch SPJ, giving the judgment of the Supreme Court recognised this, for instance, in Vallet v Ramgoolam [1973] MR 29, 40. Having regard, in particular, to the specially entrenched status of section 1, in my view it would be wrong to say that the concept of the democratic state to be found there means nothing more than the sum of the provisions in the rest of the Constitution, whatever they may be at any given moment. Rather, section 1 contains a separate, substantial, guarantee. On the other hand, what matters is the content of the concept of a democratic state as that term as used in section 1 and not just generally. That said, the Constitution is not to be interpreted in a vacuum, without any regard to thinking in other countries sharing similar values. Equally, experience in Mauritius is likely to prove of value to courts elsewhere. 4° Floor, R. Seeneevassen Building, Port Louis ~ Mauritius Tel. : (230) 203 4742 — Fax: (230) 211 8024 Email : ago@govmn org